International Surgery Journal | October 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 10 Page 3315 International Surgery Journal Chawan AP et al. Int Surg J. 2020 Oct;7(10):3315-3320 http://www.ijsurgery.com pISSN 2349-3305 | eISSN 2349-2902 Original Research Article Surgical diseases and surgical outcomes in geriatric patients Amba Prasad Chawan, Yashwant Singh Rathore*, Sunil Chumber, Kamal Kataria INTRODUCTION The proportion of the older population in a country is increasing day by day. Due to economic well-being, better health care system, good and various medicines and substantial reduction in mortality in the society, there are an increased number of older people. This phenomenon, called population ageing, is a dynamic demographic trend all over the world. Due to better medical quality and living conditions, more and more elderly patients are encouraged to undergo surgeries which were previously considered too risky. 1,2 However, geriatric patients commonly pose a significant challenge both in emergency surgery and in elective surgery. 3 Although old age alone may not necessarily be a risk factor. 4,5 Emergency surgery, medical problems and reduced physiological reserve in the elderly often put them in an increased risk category. 6-8 Due to limited physiological reserves, older patients may not tolerate the operative procedure & can also develop more complications when compared to younger patients. 9,10 We took a small leap and conducted this study to understand the demography and disease distribution among older patients ≥60 years of age that who have been admitted for operative procedures in general surgical wards of our institute. ABSTRACT Background: To study the demography, disease distribution and co morbid conditions, complications and mortality among elderly patients undergoing operation in general surgical wards. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted among elderly patients of age ≥60 years admitted in General Surgery wards at our institute for a period of a year. Results: A total of 137 patients were recruited in this study. Out of them 62.04% were men and 37.96% were women. Most common system involved was hepatobiliary with a total of 38 cases (27.7%), most common surgical disease in our study was hernias (27%) and gallstone disease (25%). About 55.5% of our study population had co morbid medical conditions. Hypertension was the most common co morbidity (38%) in our study. Out of 137 cases, 115 cases were elective cases and 22 were emergency cases, operated in emergency settings. About 16.7% of the study population had surgical complications. Post-operative seroma formation at the surgical site was the most common complication. About 7 cases were succumbed to death and mortality rate was about 5.1% in our study population. Conclusion: Prevalence of medical co morbidities is higher in elderly population. Out of them, hypertension and diabetes mellitus are the most common co morbid conditions. Most common indications for elective surgery in our study are hernias and gallstone disease. Early elective surgical intervention is preferred in elderly population when presented, as age, co morbidities and emergency settings increase risk of perioperative mortality. Keywords: Geriatric patients, Surgical diseases, Geriatric surgery, Co morbidities, Surgical outcomes Department of Surgical Disciplines, AIIMS, New Delhi, India Received: 13 July 2020 Revised: 14 August 2020 Accepted: 24 August 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Yashwant Singh Rathore, E-mail: dryashvant.r@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-2902.isj20204129